“Comfort
ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God.
Speak ye comfortable to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is
accomplished, she hath received of the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.”
(Isaiah 40:1,2)

It
has been our observation that not many of the Truth groups are speaking
comfortably to Jerusalem, and they especially need encouragement now. That Servant said in 1910 that he “attempted
to tell Israel the good tidings that God’s set time to remember Zion had
come. But seemingly that was too
early. God’s set time for Israel to hear
was still future. I am still waiting for
God’s own time and way for the fulfillment of Isaiah 40:1,2.” (Sermon Book,
page 480, par. 1)

Fulfillment of prophecy: But now the set time has come (Psa.
102:13). Israel has received the
“double” [kophel -
as a thing folded in the middle] for all her sins, and has been returned to her
homeland. The period of her disfavor,
from A.D. 33 to 1878, was to be of the same length, 1845 years, as the period
of her favor from the death of Jacob to the death of Christ. Since 1878 favor has returned to Israel, even
though it doesn’t seem like it with all the trouble they are having, but the
fact of the matter is that no power can expel them from their homeland. “The Lord said to Abram… I will make of thee
a great nation, and I will bless them that bless thee, and curse them that
curse thee.” (Gen. 12:1-3) “Behold,
I will make thee [Jacob] fruitful… I
will give this land to thy seed after thee for an everlasting
possession.” (Gen. 48:4) “Fear thou not,
O Jacob, my servant: for I am with thee: for I will make a full end of all
nations whither I have driven thee: but I will not make a full endof
thee, but correct thee in measure.” (Jer. 46:28)

“Thus
hath said the Lord who bestoweth the sun for a light by day, the ordinance of
the moon and of the stars for a light by night, who stirreth up the sea that
its waves roar. The Lord of Hosts is his
name. If these ordinances ever depart
from before me, saith the Lord, then also shall the seed of Israel cease from
being a nation before me during all time.” (Jer. 31:35,36)

Thus
we are able to say, with strong assurance, the Jews are to have their Biblical
Homeland for an everlasting possession; and no force on earth will be able to
evict them from it. “I will plant them
upon their land, and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I
have giventhem, saith the Lord thy God.” (Amos 9:15) And those that give them help will be
correspondingly blessed; and those that hinder them will be cursed. This restoration of the Jew to their Homeland
is a beginning of Restitution. Israel as
a nation will be the first among the nations to come into harmony with the new
order of things. However, God foretold
that Israel would return nationally before they recognize the Messiah, before
the blessings of His Kingdom begin, before the New Covenant is made with
them (Jer. 31:23-34).

The
fact that they are returned in a non-converted condition is one reason they are
now having so much trouble. Another
reason is that there are forces that want to destroy Israel completely. We know they will not succeed, but she needs
our comfort and as much help of all kinds that we can possibly give.

“Things To Come? Before the rebirth of the Jewish State of
Israel, a tradition existed in the Diaspora that one part of the Jewish home
would always remain unfinished. This was
a reminder that at any moment anti-Semitism could again erupt and force the
Jews to hastily leave and find refuge, however tenuous, somewhere else.

“Israel
was reborn in 1948, after nearly two thousand years of persecution and
slaughter culminating in the Holocaust, in which one third of the world’s
Jewish population was systematically destroyed.
With a Jewish state, Jews finally believed that at least they had a
refuge to escape to should they be threatened.
But something terrible has happened since the Islamist atrocity against
America on September 11, 2001.

“Throughout
Europe, and many other parts of the world, Jews are now witnessing a return of
a virulent strain of anti-Semitism fueled by the terror launched by Yasser
Arafat against Israel. This may seem
paradoxical. How can Israel, which is
the victim of terror on a scale no other nation can even comprehend, be
portrayed as the aggressor and Jews, by extension, be demonized…

“But
Britain, like so much of Europe, has changed.
Enormous populations of Moslem, Arabs have entered France from North
Africa. Moslems from Indonesia have
entered Holland and many Turks and Arabs live in Germany. The Jewish population of Great Britain is
shrinking through assimilation and now numbers less than three hundred
thousand, compared to a Moslem population of 3,000,000 who entered Britain over
the years from Pakistan and Bangladesh.
Strident anti-Jewish statements are routinely spewed in British mosques
and British universities. Many Christian
Churches too are reverting to the ancient hatred of Jews, rooted deep in
Christian theology, and now on widespread display once again.

“Melanie
Phillips, in an article in Britain’s Spectator titled ‘Christians who
hate the Jews’ writes of the old and hateful doctrine of the Church, which was
suppressed after the Holocaust, but has been revived under the influence of the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict. She
writes, ‘this doctrine is called replacement theology which, in essence, says
that the Jews have been replaced by the Christians in God’s favor, and so all
God’s promises to the Jews, including the land of Israel have been inherited by
Christianity’…

“One
Palestinian Christian cleric, who is highly influential and who preaches
liberation theology, Father Naim Ateek, is a regular visitor to Portland. At a recent appearance in a Portland church,
Ateek was challenged by local members of Bridges for Peace who reminded him of
the inalienable rights of the Jewish people to their ancestral and Biblical
homeland of Israel. Father Ateek
dismissed them in a sneering tone, as ‘Oh you are those Old Testament
Christians’…

“As
Melanie Phillips adds, ‘the neurotic insecurity of the most persecuted people
on earth is being fed by Arab terror.
British Jews caught between Christian replacement theology, Islamist
blood libels, and a hostile media, suddenly find that Britain is a colder
place.’

“As
Christian evangelicals, firm supporters of Israel, found in the Portland church
a few weeks ago, there is the same hatred of the Jews and the Jewish State here
in America. Could the unthinkable shake
Jewish Americans to the core? Could
Jewish Americans live to see another Holocaust, this time of 5,000,000 Jews in
Israel? And could Jews in America see
their golden age crumble and be forced to pack their bags?”

(Excerpts from Victor Sharp, a
writer on Jewish history and the Arab-Israel dispute. He lives in Portland, Oregon. Reported in Bridges For Peace, April 18,
2002)

The
above shows what a terrible time the Jews are experiencing. We trust the Lord that He will preserve them
in their land. But, in the meantime,
they are in need of a lot of support and encouragement. They need us to remind them of God’s promises
to them, but they also need material support.
It has been suggested to us that one good way to help is to contribute
to their Ambulance Fund. That can be
done through American Red Magen David For Israel. The address is: ARMDI, 888 7th Avenue Suite 403,
New York, NY 10102-0009. Put the word
Ambulance on your contribution.

Now,
there have been more reports of an increase in anti-Semitism activity in
France, Germany and Italy, as well as in Great Britain. It is very evident that we are in the “day of
preparation” (Nahum 2:3,4) and those who cannot see that the Parousia Harvest
is complete are not aware of the “day of thy visitation” (Luke 19:44), nor the
Times and Seasons in which we are living (1 Thes. 5:1,2,4)

That
Servant writes of the “day of preparation” thusly: “The ‘Day of His Preparation’ would be the
day or period of time when the Lord God would prepare or make ready the
elements and conditions for the new dispensation, sometimes alluded to as ‘The
Golden Age of Prophecy.’ As a matter of
fact, are we not living in a period of transition? Marvelous changes are being wrought out, old
things are passing away and new conditions are being developed.” (Question
Book, page 759) And this is true more so
now than when it was written.

It
was That Servant’s mission to gather the Saints into the “unity of faith.” The position God wished His people to accept
during the Harvest is shown in Isa. 52:8:
“Thy watchmen… shall see eye to eye, when the Lord shall bring again
Zion.” Note the Berean Comments on
this: “In the harvest of the Gospel Age,
clearly, harmoniously.” It was Brother
Russell’s Stewardship Doctrine centering about Restitution that brought “unity
of faith” for the first time in history to God’s people as a collective
group. It is true that St. Peter
preached Restitution (Acts 3:19-21); and it is true that St. Paul was “caught
up into Paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man
to utter” (2 Cor. 12:4); but it is also true that the general Church of that
time had not come to the “unity of faith,” had not come to a clear understanding
of Restitution. However, all in the
Gospel Harvest were reasonably clear on the Restitution doctrine.

Read
what Brother Russell says in Volume 4, page 610: “’They [the disciples] answered and said unto
him, Where, Lord? [Where will these be
taken?] And he said unto them,
Wheresoever the body [carcass, the food], is thither will the eagles be
gathered together.’ (Matt. 24:28; Luke 17:37)

“The
lesson is that in that day, when the Lord is gathering His ‘elect’ from
the four winds of heaven -
from every quarter of the Church -
He will attract them as eagles are attracted by food, for which they have a
keenness of vision and appetite; that in due time the Lord would provide the
proper food, and His true people would recognize it and be gathered to it - the
ready and worthy taken and the others left.

“The
food of ‘present truth’ now provided by our Lord, and the gathering of His
saints by and to it, fits the description of the prophecy exactly… Where and
when before was there ever such a public recognition of all who trust in the
precious blood of Christ and who are consecrated to him, as the one household
of faith, all brethren, and the one and only Lawgiver Christ, regardless of
human creeds and dogmas upon other subjects?
Never and nowhere since the days of the apostles, so far as we may
judge.” (Written 1897)

Therefore
a prophet (Brother Russell) accomplished the first of two purposes for which
the servants of the Church were appointed - “till we all attain the unity of
faith.” He also accomplished the second
of these purposes -
“the measure of the full stature of the anointed one.” (Eph. 4:13, Dia.) When the last one was reaped in September
1914, there also for the first time was reached “the full stature of the
anointed one” in that the Body was then full and irrevocably complete unto that
unity which “every joint supplieth, to the effectual working in the measure of
every part.” (Eph. 4:16) Can it be said
that the “watchmen” have seen “eye to eye” since 1916? No!
Nor can it be said that this oneness is something attained by the Saint
Class beyond the veil, because there would be no need for them to be “watchmen”
then.

Brother
Russell said in 1892: “Ah! Were it not
that the Lord has favored us with a share in the work of gathering out the
bride and helping to make her ready for the marriage of the Lamb, we would be
here in Jerusalem and, by the grace of God, would do a part in the great work
now due of turning away blindness from Jacob (Rom. 11:25).” (Reprint 1395, col.
2, par. 2)

But
what of those consecrated since 1916?
Brother Russell saw that the Apostle Paul said, “For I have not shunned
to declare unto you all the counsel of God.” (Acts 20:27) So he did likewise. He saw that St. Timothy said there were four
elect classes. “But in a great house
there are vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth; and
some to honour and some to dishonour [less honour].” (2 Tim. 2:20)

The
great house is the Household of Faith.
The vessels of gold are the Little Flock, the silver, Great Company,
wood the Ancient Worthies and earth the Youthful Worthies, those of honour,
converted Jews, and those of less honour, converted Gentiles. Here we have four elect and two
non-elect classes.

Joel
2:29 also lists four elect classes and says that the spirit will be “poured
out” upon the Old Men and the Young Men [the Ancient and Youthful
Worthies]. The Ancient Worthies
understood everything of God’s Plan that was due in their day. So the Youthful Worthies understand all that
is due in their day, which includes all that the Saints understand, except the
begettal of the Holy Spirit. But they
have the Holy Spirit in that they have the disposition, mind and influence of
God, given through Jesus. Thus, if
faithful, they develop the fruits and graces of the Spirit. This is attested in Heb. 12:23, which speaks
of the “spirits of just men made perfect.”
The context shows that this is at the beginning of the new dispensation
and the Saints will be glorified at that time and will not be “men.” At that time, the Worthies will have
characters that have been tested, tried and found faithful.

We
call the fourth elect class Youthful Worthies in contrast to the Ancient
Worthies and because they will be associated with them. You may call them by another name, if you so
choose. Brother Russell referred to them
as the “unbegotten consecrated between the Ages.”

These
two classes will cooperate together in the Millennium to instruct the world in
truth and righteousness. They will take
their instructions from the Glorified Christ.

“THE INTIMACY BETWEEN THE KINGDOM AND ITS EARTHLY ‘PRINCES’”

“As we should expect, the
communication between the two phases of the kingdom will be easy and direct;
and thereby the supervision and instruction of mankind will be complete, the
‘princes’ (Psa. 45:16) being the channels of divine communication. This seems to be the intimation of Jesus’
words to Nathaniel: ‘Hereafter you shall
see heaven opened, and the angels of God [the messengers of God the ‘princes’
of the new age] ascending to and descending from the Son of Man.’ (John 1:51,
Dia.) Was not Jacob’s dream of the
ladder between heaven and earth, and passing to and fro of messengers, a
prophecy as well as a dream, predicting the coming communication between the Heavenly
Kingdom and the world, in which work, as one of the communication messengers,
Jacob was to have a share in the blessing of the world? We believe that it was so intended (Gen.
28:10-20).” (Volume 4, page 629)

This
does not mean that the Worthies will literally ascend to heaven in order to
receive their instructions. We are not
given explicit information as to how the two phases of the Kingdom will
harmoniously operate; but we have an illustration of the manner in which they may
operate in God’s dealings with Israel through their representatives, Moses,
Aaron, Joshua, the prophets, etc. But
they will be able to communicate with The Christ in some way, possibly talk
directly with them as God did with some of those ancients mentioned. The world will not be able to communicate
directly with God or The Christ until the end of the Kingdom when all are
perfect. These Worthies will be the examples
among men, and their perfection will be an incentive to the world to strive to
attain the same perfection.

This
Millennial position is a very great reward for the faith and obedience of these
Worthies. But the fullness of their
reward comes after the Millennium, when they will be changed from human to
spirit beings. Reprint 5182 proves that
by their being of the antitypical Millennial Age Firstborn and Levites without
inheritance in the land, that the Ancient Worthies will be made spirit beings
after their Millennial work. Some of
these arguments prove this of the Youthful Worthies, as much as of the Ancient
Worthies. (See Question Book, page 152,
question 2.) How can anyone not desire
to be of such a class with such great rewards?
We do not know what their station will be, but there are two places
vacant in heaven -
the one occupied by the Logos, before He came to earth, and Lucifer’s place
that Satan formerly occupied.

It
is not our intention to urge anyone to consecrate just for the reward. We merely bring out the rewards to show that
the subject of the Worthies is not a minor one, but is a doctrinal
question, and one of no small importance, affecting the standing of thousands
of people now consecrated and more that will consecrate. The trial of these two classes is not for
life, as the Saints, but for faith and obedience. The Ancient Worthies suffered much - some
as much as the Saints. And it is
possible some of the Youthful Worthies will have to suffer a great deal during
this Time of Trouble in order to be faithful and obedient.

The
various Truth groups say very little, if anything, about the Ancient Worthies
enumerated in Hebrews, chapter 11. Why
is that? Is it possibly because they
realize that the Youthful Worthy class will be associated with them and they do
not want to bring attention to the fact of such a class existing?

“Question
(1911) -
If any consecrated now and fail to be begotten of the Holy Spirit, where would
the Lord place them? Answer - We
would presume that if they are faithful, as the prophets of old were faithful,
to the extent of laying down their lives in the service of righteousness and
truth, that God would give them a share some way with the Ancient
Worthies. In other words, that if such
should pass into the Time of Trouble to a considerable degree, and there lose
their lives because of faithfulness to the Lord, that He would do just the same
for them that He will do for the Ancient Worthies - they will be counted in
with the Ancient Worthy class.” (Question Book, page 152)

What
does all this have to do with the Jews?
Jesus said to the Jews, “Ye shall see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and all
the prophets, in the Kingdom of God.” (Luke 13:28) The Jew, long used to striving to do, and of
trusting of works of obedience to the Law to secure for him God’s blessing will
be to his advantage in the dawn of the Millennial Age, and no one will be more
ready for the strict requirements and Laws of that Age than he, after his
blindness as to Christ and the value of His sacrifice for sins shall have
passed away; for works are required after faith in Christ, though not accepted before.

“So
the Millennial favors will be to the Jew first, even as by reason of the
covenants, etc., the Gospel favors were offered to them first. And so it shall be finally as Simeon
prophesied: ‘This child is set for the fall and rising again of many in
Israel.’ And the time for raising up
that nation, so long fallen from favor, is at hand.’ (Vol. 3, page 256)

It
should be clear to anyone that our beloved Pastor thoroughly believed, and was
in full accord with the teaching of St. Paul in Rom. 1:16 - “Salvation
is to the Jew first” -
not only in the Great Salvation but also in the Common Salvation (Heb. 2:3 and
Jude 3); and also with the Apostle John in John 4:22: “Salvation is of the
Jews.”

In
Isa. 2:3 we are told that “Out of Zion [the Christ Company in Heaven] shall go
forth the law; and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem [The resurrected
Worthies who will be the visible government here on earth -
“princes in all the earth” (Psa. 45:16) and who will be assisted by the
faithful orthodox Jews as missionaries, the “first” to receive the blessings of
the New Covenant. (Jer. 31:31)].”

We
will close with Joshua’s words of assurance to the Jews: “And behold, this day
I am going the way of all the earth: and ye know in all your hearts and in all
your souls, that not one thing hath failed of all the good things which the
Lord your God spake concerning you; all are come to pass unto you, and not
one thing failed thereof.” (Josh. 23:14)

___________________________________________________________________

WHAT KIND OF A MAN IS SADDAM HUSSEIN?

Our political and military leaders are
asking this question, "What kind of a man are we fighting?" The answer to this question was written in
the Bible about 4,000 years ago. Abraham
had two sons, Ishmael and Isaac: Ishmael
by Hagar, an Egyptian, when Abraham's wife Sarah was unable to conceive. Some years later God performed a biological
miracle and permitted Sarah to give Abraham a son Isaac, the "seed of
promise." These two sons of Abraham
each had twelve sons which became two mighty nations which later became known
as the nation of Israel and the Arab nation or Ishmaelites.

The Arabs
or Ishmaelites are described in Genesis 16:12 (Rotherham): "But he will be a wild ass of a man, his
hand against every one, and every one's hand against him — yet in presence of
all his brethren shall he have his habitation." Genesis 16:10 states that Ishmael's seed, the
Arabs, "shall not be numbered for multitude."

The
Ishmaelites and posterity have lived by prey and plundering, robbers by land
and pirates by sea. Genesis 16:12 states
that Ishmael would dwell in the presence of all his brethren — viz., Moabites,
Edomites and Israelites. They have been continually at war with the rest of the
world and yet never defeated. They did
not acknowledge Alexander the Great as conqueror. Alexander objected to this insult and
determined to punish the culprits but died before he could accomplish his
mission.

When the
Romans invaded the East and subdued adjoining countries, they were never able
to reduce Arabia to a Roman province.
Time after time enemies sought to invade but were always forced out.

About the
7th Century A.D., Mohammed appeared on the scene and set the desert and the Mid
East aflame. Ishmaelites under Mohammed
strengthened and extended their power.
Under his successors these Arabs, imbued with their new and false
religion and their hereditary thirst for blood and pillage, developed into a
ferocious horde and carried the Islam banner throughout Asia, Africa and even
into Spain.

Since the
fall of their Muslim empire, the Turks have made repeated attempts to subdue
these Arabs, but instead of succeeding they have been obliged for several
centuries to pay them yearly tribute, to permit the converted Turkish Moslems
to have a safe passage to Mecca, the "Holy City" where Mohammed the
Ishmaelite was born.

Others, Gallas, Trajan, Pompey and Augustus, have been
unsuccessful in conquering the Arabs — the Ishmaelites. Emperor Severus, a Roman, laid siege and even
made a breach in their defenses, but insurrection broke out in the ranks. As an unseen power protected these
Ishmaelites, Emperor Trajan sought to conquer them in about A.D. 110. Whirlwinds, swarms of flies, lightning,
thunder, hail, apparitions in the sky, heat and thirst all helped to repulse
these Italians every time they attacked.
And so down the stream of time God's hand seems to have been on the
Ishmaelites. In spite of commerce and
intercourse with others, they remain the same fierce, savage, intractable
people like their ancestors.

This
people, with the Jews excepted, have for 4,000 years withstood the enmity as a
distinct people from their beginning with Ishmael.

Compare Arabs and Jews:

(1) Both
descendants of Abraham; (2) Both
practice circumcision; (3) Both originally
had 12 patriarchs or heads of tribes and (4) Both marry among themselves.

The land
promised to Abraham and his seed is given in Genesis 17:6‑8: "And I will make thee exceeding
fruitful, and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of
thee. And I will establish my covenant
between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an
everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee. And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed
after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan for an
everlasting possession; and I will be their God."

Also in
Genesis 22:16‑18: "And said, By
myself have I sworn, saith the Lord, for because thou hast done this thing, and
hast not withheld thy son, thine only son:
that in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply
thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea
shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies; and in thy seed
shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my
voice." The stars of the heaven and
the sand which is upon the seashore indicates a heavenly and earthly phase of
Christ's Kingdom. In Jeremiah 31:31 God
promised to make a New Covenant with the house of Israel and the house of
Judah. When this covenant is established
with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, He will bless them and through
them "all the families of the earth."

The
Ishmaelites too will be blessed thru the nation of Israel. "And as for Ishmael, I have heard
thee: Behold I have blessed him, and
will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly; twelve princes shall
he beget, and I will make him a great nation." (Gen. 17:20)

In Isaiah 2:2,3 we read: "And it shall come to pass in the last
days, that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of
the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow
unto it. And many people shall go and
say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the
God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and
the word of the Lord from Jerusalem."

The Jews
are to be gathered from the four corners of the earth where they have been
dispersed until God gathers them by the hunters and fishers. (Jer. 16:16) "And he shall set up an ensign for the
nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the
dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth." (Isa. 11:12)

The
headquarters of the Kingdom will be Jerusalem and from there flow throughout
the world.

God did
not promise Ishmael and his seed the land of Canaan. Isaac and his seed were promised the
land from "the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river
Euphrates." (Gen. 15:18‑21; Ex. 23:31; Deut. 1:7,8; 11:24; Ezek. 48:1‑29)

A similar
picture is presented in the two sons of Isaac:
Jacob and Esau. Saddam Hussein
will be defeated eventually because God has promised Canaan to the Jews. "He is faithful that promised."
(Heb. 10:23)

(Reprint
No. 495, by Brother Roy Ekroth)

In the May 13, 2002, Time
magazine there is a special report on “The Sinister World of Saddam.”

___________________________________________________________________

NEW WAVE OF NORTH AMERICAN ALIYAH TO BEGIN NEXT MONTH

“This July a planeload of almost 400
new immigrants may signal the onset of a new wave of American aliyah
[immigration to Israel]. The large group
-
probably the largest single planeload of immigrants to arrive in Israel from
countries other than Russia, Ethiopia and Yemen is sponsored by a new
foundation that has set as its goal no less than to ‘ultimately change the face
of North American Aliyah.’

“The organization, Nefesh B’Nefesh - Jewish Souls United - was formed last year to
‘revitalize North American Aliyah and to expand it for generations to come by
removing the financial, professional, social and logistical obstacles that are
preventing many ‘would-be immigrants from fulfilling their dream.’ Co-founder Tony Gelbart specifies: ‘There
indeed are hundreds of individuals [and families with] student debts, loans,
tuitions, etc., and by the time they pay off their debts, they and their
children are already too settled in their communities to make Aliyah. We decided to eliminate those hurdles.’

“The organization, wishing to ‘send
an unmistakable signal of North American-Israeli Jewish solidarity and joint
determination to strengthen the State of Israel,’ awards financial grants based
on financial need to potential immigrants.
Those who remain in Israel for three years or more need not repay the
monies at all. Some 535 people have gone
or are going through the Nefesh B’Nefesh Aliyah process.

The financial assistance granted to
Nefesh B’Nefesh recipients comes from private, corporate and foundation
donations. One group in particular, the
International Fellowship of Christians and Jews (IFCJ), contributed $2 million
to the cause. ‘When we presented the
project to IFCJ founder, Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein,’ Gilbert said, ‘he pledged his
support without hesitation.’

Nefesh B’Nefesh also assisted in
alleviating aliyah obstacles such as housing, jobs, social acculturation and
the like, in cooperation with established aliyah organizations, the Jewish
Agency, and government of Israel.
Co-founder and Executive Director Rabbi Joushua Fass stated, ‘Imagine
people all over the globe understanding that Israel is not just a haven for
those who are fleeing, but that Israel itself is a primary choice for those who
have alternatives, current stability and comfort. This plane will hopefully send an
unmistakable message of solidarity to Israel citizens… and it will send an
unquestionable message to all of our friends and relatives in North America
that they can do it too. This is the
first plane of many to follow.’” (Arutz
7, from Bridges of Peace, June 14, 2002)

___________________________________________________________________

“Russian Woman’s Sight
Restored: Titana Sofanova, a
non-Jewish woman who was blinded when she attempted to uproot a booby-trapped
sign reading, ‘Death to the Jews,’ has been cured by Israeli doctors. She was traveling on a highway near Moscow
with her mother and daughter when she saw the sign. Offended by the message of hate, she stopped
the car and tried to uproot the sign - and the ensuing explosion
sent shrapnel into her right eye and caused bleeding in the left eye; and she
was left practically sightless. The
Union of Jewish Communities in Russia decided that this humanitarian case was
its responsibility and arranged an all-expense-paid trip to the Ophthalmologic
Department of Tel HaShomer Hospital in Israel, where in fact doctors were able
to restore her eyesight. Philanthropist
Lev Levayev told Arutz 7 today, ‘This was an act of courage by a
non-Jew, and for sure, we and the entire People of Israel are obligated to this
woman.’ Levayev said that all her
family’s needs related to this incident would be covered.” (Arutz 7, from Bridges of Peace, June 14,
2002)

___________________________________________________________________

“Inquisition Queen: Spanish Jewish community leaders are
rightsizing a proposal by the majority of the country’s 80 Roman Catholic
bishops to move ahead with the canonization of Queen Isabella I, who with her
husband, King Ferdinand V, established the Spanish Inquisition and subsequently
expelled all Jews in 1492.”

(World
Jewry, April 2002)

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LETTER OF GENERAL INTEREST

Dear Brethren: Warmest greetings in His precious Name!

I am glad to send you this report
about an experience that the Bausches had a few weeks ago in Israel. One of the Arabs killed in the suicide
bombing of a café in Haifa was the nephew of a good Arab friend of theirs. Lev and Hava went to the funeral and tried to
be a comfort to the family, whom they had known and visited for some years.

What impressed Lev and Hava Bausch
that they communicated to me had to do with the reaction of their Arab friend,
the uncle of the young man killed in cold blood at the Haifa café, operated,
incidentally, by Arabs. (It seems that
many Arabs of the Galilee are involved in the restaurant business in Israel.)

The uncle told Bausches that he
“hated” the suicide-bomber (even though he was a fellow Arab!). Lev had had arguments, friendly, with this
Arab friend over the years about the Palestinians, so it surprised Lev that now
the Arab friend expressed hatred for the suicide-bomber.

Of course, it proved that a change of
heart could take place in an Israel-Arab citizen, but sadly, at what cost. We often wonder why the Lord permits these
horribly tragic massacres in Israel, which, by the way, have opened the eyes of
many Jewish Israeli to the futility of being kind to their Arab neighbors. That is why, especially since the cruel
Passover bombing in Netanya, some 85% of the Israeli support Ariel Sharon and
his policy of routing out the murderers in various “West Bank” cities.

Yet they are “kind” to the
Palestinians, foregoing an easier way of destroying the terrorists by bombing
them from the air, instead going in on foot, soldier by soldier, to save
civilian lives, even though the Israeli solders, in turn, lost many of their
own men. An article from The
Jerusalem Post points up the sensitivity of the Israeli soldier
encountering bobby-trapped houses in those Arab towns, yet having time to hand
food and water to beleagured civilians.

Lev and Hava Bausch continue to be
valuable ambassadors for Bible Students by living in Israel. Pray for them and support them. Their bed-and-breakfast business is down
drastically.